Critical Analysis of a Qualitative Study on Experiences of Health Professionals Caring for People Presenting to the Emergency Department After Taking Crystal Methamphetamine

Running head: NURSING
Nursing
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1NURSING
Introduction of the paper
The following oration attempts to provide critical analysis of a qualitative study
conducted by Cleary, Jackson, Woods, Kornhaber, Sayers and Usher (2017). The parameters
over which the critical analysis will be done include topic selection, sampling technique,
methodology used and the implications of the final results.
Topic
The topic of the selected paper is Experiences of Health Professionals Caring for
People Presenting to the Emergency Department After Taking Crystal Methamphetamine
Research Questions
The main research question that is addressed in the paper: "what are the experience of
the healthcare professionals who are caring for the people in the emergency department after
taking crystal methamphetamine (ICE)”. In Australia, the use of ICN related emergency
department admissions are higher, and the rate is 7.6% and is associated with psychiatric
symptom like acute psychosis, anxiety disorder and depression. Thus people intoxicated with
ICN are more likely to be aggressive, having violent outburst and in extreme cases, might
have schizophrenia. Thus ICN user represents damage both to themselves and care givers.
Thus the experience of handling patients with ICU intoxication will be different from that
handling a patient admitted with stomach and chest pain or other injury. This research papers
aims to identify the difference in the experience of the healthcare professionals in managing
or handling such patients in the emergency department (ED).
Rational of research in nursing practice
Several research undertaken over the mental health nursing have highlighted that a
different approach or effective communication skills (verbal and non-verbal communication

2NURSING
skills) must be undertaken in order to establish the therapeutic relationships with the patients
suffering from psychosis, bipolar disorder or depression. The patients who are suffering from
ICN are found to be aggressive as stated earlier. Thus a different approach of handling such
patients must be undertaken. However, there are so specific, person centred approach is
reported in order to handle the patient with ICN intoxication. Establishment of evidence-
based practice for handling ICN users must be based on the experience of the healthcare
professionals who have handled ICN users. The establishment of the evidence-based practice
for ICN user handling will help to improve the overall quality of care of the ICN and will also
make to easier for the emergency care nurses to handle those patients. This is important under
the Australian healthcare context as the number of reported cases of the emergency hospital
admission of the ICN users is increasing as reported by the Commonwealth of Australia.
Thus, establishment of the evidence-based practice will help in improving the service quality
of the ICN patients. The development of the evidence-based practice will help to establish a
standardised training program for the healthcare professionals to handle ICN users.
Location of the study
The study was conducted over the healthcare professionals. The main inclusion
criteria include: experience of handling ICN users under the emergency settings. The
healthcare professionals practicing in urban and rural areas of the New South Wales and
Queensland were recruited as the main target population for the study.
Study settings
The setting is appropriate with the scope of the research. Research aims in
highlighting the experience of the healthcare professionals in handling the ICN patients under
the emergency setting. Thus the main focus group of the study is healthcare professionals
who work in the ED and have experience of handling ICN patients. Healthcare professionals